This was a century when European explorers were traveling farther than they had ever gone before from their own shores. Ferdinand and Isabella were competing with the Portuguese to find routes to travel to Southern Asia. These routes were incredibly valuable, as merchants could buy large quantities of luxury goods such as spices like pepper and cinnamon, porcelain, ivory, cotton, or even silk, then bring them back to Europe and sell them at a huge profit. But these voyages were also very risky. Signing on to a voyage of exploration was a bit like buying a lottery ticket, where you had just as good a chance of earning a fortune as you did of never returning. It is astonishing to imagine just how many sailors were willing to accept this risk and set sail for unknown shores, often without having any idea precisely where their destination was. Until 1434, European sailors would sail no further than Cape Bojador on the coast of Morocco. They were afraid that the currents and winds would never allow them to sail back northwards. But within less than a hundred years, an expedition sponsored by the Spanish crown would manage to sail all the way around the world.

By the end of the sixteenth century, the New Monarchs had left the European continent transformed. New monarchs found ways to raise taxes and fill their states’ treasuries. New monarchs also sought to create a more unified national identity in their kingdoms. By centralizing power, professionalizing war, and tethering the Church to the crown, they did more than just expand their borders—they invented the concept of the nation-state. They found Europe a collection of private estates and left it a map of sovereign powers, proving that the pen of a letrado and the ledger of a Fugger were often mightier than any noble’s sword.

Printing had been invented in the city of Mainz by the craftsman Johannes Gutenberg. In a few short decades, its invention nearly brought down the institutional Christian church, allowed for the foundations of modern science and medicine, and led to the discovery of about half of the planet. In this episode, we will look at the history of how Europeans recorded human knowledge, and how an inventor in Mainz accidentally altered the future of humanity forever.

Last week, we learned about the rekindling of classical learning, science, and the arts that was fueled by tremendous economic growth and trade that historians call the “Renaissance.” Today, we head to Northern Europe, where a similar Renaissance was taking place. Like the artists, architects, and scientists of the Italian Renaissance that we talked about in our last episode, the Renaissance in Northern Europe focused on the potential of individuals. That is what Dürer represents: an artist whose love for learning and desire to express his ideas through his works had such a profound impact on their age, that they still resonate with us today.

In this episode, we explore the Italian Renaissance. We’ll look at the economic factors that made the Renaissance possible, the patrons who became sponsors of art and scientific breakthroughs, and the accomplishments that visitors from all around the world travel to Italy and marvel at.